Portable shelter

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a portable shelter assembly including a support. An expandable shelter is supported by the support and expands to shelter at least one person. One or more anchors are provided for anchoring the shelter. Advantageously, the anchors anchor the shelter to impede the assembly from bang blown away in the wind.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a portable shelter. The present invention has particular, although not exclusive application to beach shelters and other like outdoor shelters.

BACKGROUND

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not fee taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge.

Skin cancer and other skin damage from the sun is increasing at alarming rate. In order to order to minimize skin damage, beach goers can bring beach umbrellas to the beach. The umbrellas may be jammed into the sand and expanded to provide shelter to a beach goer.

However, in practice, beach umbrellas are prone to blow away in the wind. Accordingly, the canopy of a beach umbrella is often rested on the sand to stabilize the umbrella. Resting the umbrella in this manner undesirably results in the beach goer needing to crouch awkwardly beneath the umbrella and generally provides only partial sun protection as part of the beach goer is exposed.

Other types of shelter are also known. A semi-enclosed expandable shelter has flexible ribs that extend to ground level to tension the shelter. These shelters undesirably lack air flow and adequate height to provide suitable ventilation and cooling for their occupants and can be difficult to foldaway.

Large “scissor” action shelter have extendable legs requiring two or more people to erect. These shelters are difficult to easily transport to and from the beach.

A known shelter is reliant upon the wind to be kept open to provide adequate room for it's occupants. Often, there is net enough wind to keep these shelters open enough with the outcome that beach goers do not stay long, do not enjoy their time at the beach or simply do not use any shelter thereby increasing their susceptibility to skin cancers.

The preferred embodiment provides an improved shelter for beach goers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable shelter assembly including:

a support;

an expandable shelter for being supported by the support and expanding to shelter at least one person; and

one or more anchors for anchoring the shelter.

Advantageously, the anchors anchor the shelter to impede the assembly from being blown away in the wind. Typically, the shelter assembly is erected by a single person and provides excellent ventilation.

Preferably, the anchors include receptacles for receiving material. The receptacles may include sheet material. The anchors may include respective strips extending from a periphery of the shelter. The strips may include sheet material. The strips may include corner strips. One or more of the strips may include respective interior pockets.

The support may include a spike for spiking into the ground (e.g., sand or grass). The support may include a pole for releasably fastening to the spike which may also act as a hammer to hammer the sad spike(s) into sand or grass.

The shelter may be expanded in two steps, namely: a first step for opening the shelter and a second step for tightening the shelter. The expandable shelter may include a canopy. The canopy may include a sheet of material. The shelter may include ribs supporting the canopy. In one embodiment the ribs are axially expandable to tighten the canopy. Each rib may include a lock for locking the rib in an expanded configuration. In another embodiment, the ribs are pivotally expandable to extend and possibly tighten the canopy. Each rib may include a restraint for restraining pivoting. The shelter may include stretchers for expanding the ribs from the support. The shelter may include a runner for running along the support to actuate the stretchers. The shelter may include a look for locking the runner in place when the shelter is expanded.

The shelter assembly may be collapsed to be stowed in a carry-bag. The shelter may he square and expanded to be at least 17 m long×17 m wide. The assembled shelter may be of sufficient height to accommodate a standing person. The ribs or support may include lightweight, resilient tubes (e.g. aluminium or fibre reinforced material).

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for assembling a portable shelter assembly, the method including:

erecting a support;

supporting an expandable shelter with the support;

anchoring the shelter; and

expanding the shelter to shelter at least one person.

Any of the features described herein can be combined in any combination with any one or more of the other features described herein within the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred features, embodiments and variations of the invention may be discerned from the following Detailed Description which provides sufficient information for those skilled in the art to perform the invention. The Detailed Description is not to be regarded as limiting the scope of the preceding Summary of the invention in any way. The Detailed Description will make reference to a number of drawings as follows:

FIG. 1 is a lower perspective view of an assembled portable beach shelter assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded side view of the unassembled portable beach shelter assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a close-up perspective view of a rib of the beach shelter assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a close-up perspective view of an alternative rib of the beach shelter assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an upper perspective view of a beach shelter frame including the ribs of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is an upper perspective view of beach shelter frame including the ribs of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a portable beach shelter assembly 100 as shown in FIG. 1. The shelter assembly 100 includes a vertical and central support 102. An expandable shelter 104 is supported by the support 102 and expands to shelter a person from the sun. Four corner anchors 106 are provided for anchoring the shelter 104 to the ground. Advantageously, shelter assembly 100 is wind resistant whereby the anchors anchor the shelter 104 to impede the assembly 100 from being blown away. The assembly 100 is erected by a single person and provides excellent ventilation.

The anchors 106 include base pocket receptacles 108 for receiving sand, water bottles, rocks or other like anchoring materials. The receptacles 108 are formed from stitched sheet or other material. The anchors 106 also include respective corner strips 110 extending from a corner periphery of the shelter 104 to the ground. One or more of the strips 110 may include interior storage pockets 112.

Turning to FIG. 2, the support 102 includes a spike 200 for spiking into the sand (e.g. ground). The support 102 also includes a tubular hammer pole 202 for releasably receiving the spike 200. In turn, the pole 202 couples to a tubular vertical pole 204 of the shelter 104.

The expandable shelter 104 includes attached canopy 206 formed from a sheet of material. The shelter 104 includes four ribs 208 supporting the canopy 206 and pivotally anchored at a crown 209. The shelter 104 also includes stretchers 212 for expanding the ribs 208 from the support 102. A runner 210 is provided for running along the support 102 to actuate the stretchers 212. The shelter 104 may include a lock for locking the runner 210 in place when the shelter 104 is expanded.

The shelter assembly 100 can be collapsed to be conveniently stowed in a carry-bag carried by one person. The shelter 100 is generally square (FIG. 1) and expanded to be at least 1.8 metres long×1.8 metres wide, or other larger or smaller dimension as required. The assembled shelter 100 may be of sufficient height to accommodate a standing person. The ribs 208 and support 102 include lightweight, resilient tubes (e.g. aluminium) to facilitate easy handling by the single user that can conveniently erect and collapse the assembly 100.

The shelter 104 is initially expanded using the runner 210, and then further expanded to tighten the canopy 206 using the ribs 208. FIG. 3 shows a telescopic rib 208 which can foe axially expanded to tighten the canopy 208. Each rib 208 includes a lock 300 or a ratchet type lock for locking the rib 208 in an expanded configuration. The lock 300 includes a spring-biased pushbutton 302 that protrudes through adjustment holes 303 in both sliding stems 304, 306 to lock the stems 304, 306 together. FIG. 6 shows the beach shelter frame including the ribs 208 of FIG. 3.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4, the ribs 208 can be pivotally expandable to tighten the canopy 206. In this manner a top stem 400 of the rib 208 pivots downwardly to align with the level stem 402 during tightening of the canopy 206. Each rib 208 may include a mechanical restraint for restraining pivoting downwardly beyond 180° so that the erected rib 208 is substantially straight. FIG. 5 shows the beach shelter frame including the ribs 208 of FIG. 4.

A method for assembling the portable shelter assembly 100 is now briefly described.

Initially, a storage bag axially slips of off the compacted shelter assembly 100.

Next, the method involves erecting the support 102. The spike 200 slides into the pole 202. The spike 200 is then hammered into the sand by forcing the pole 202 up and down.

Next, the expandable shelter 104 is supported by the support 102. The vertical pole 204 of the shelter 104 slides onto the lower pole 202.

Next, the anchor receptacles 108 are filled with sand to anchor the shelter 104.

Next, the shelter 104 is expanded in two easy steps to shelter up to two people comfortably, namely: a first step for opening the shelter 104 and a second step for tightening the shelter 104. Firstly, the runner 210 is run up the vertical pole 204 to expand the ribs 208 supporting the canopy 206. Secondly, the ribs 208 are expanded to tighten the canopy 206. Both the runner 210 and the ribs 208 may be locked in place.

Once the day is done, the portable assembly 100 may be conveniently unassembled and returned to its storage bag.

A person skilled in the art will appreciate that many embodiments and variations can be made without departing from the ambit of the present invention.

In one embodiment, the anchors 106 may include pegs for pegging to hard ground (e.g. grass).

In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the proper scope of the appended claims appropriately interpreted by those skilled in the art.

Reference throughout this specification to ‘one embodiment’ or ‘an embodiment’ means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases ‘in one embodiment’ or ‘in an embodiment’ in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more combinations. 

1. A portable shelter assembly including: a support including a spike for hammering into the ground with a hammer pole that slides relative to the spike; an expandable shelter for being supported by the support and expanding to shelter at least one person; and one or more anchors for anchoring the shelter.
 2. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anchors include receptacles, in the form of open pockets, for receiving material to prevent contraction of arms of the expanded shelter.
 3. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the receptacles include sheet material or other suitable material.
 4. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anchors include four strips extending from a periphery of the shelter to define four viewing spaces between adjacent strips with no walls between the adjacent strips.
 5. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein the strips are corner strips and include sheet material.
 6. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein one or more of the strips include respective interior pockets.
 7. (canceled)
 8. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support includes the hammer pole which releasably receives the spike, and the spike is hammered into the ground by moving the pole up and down.
 9. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shelter can be expanded in two steps, namely: a first step for opening the shelter and a second step for tightening the shelter.
 10. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the expandable shelter includes a canopy.
 11. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 10, wherein the canopy includes a sheet of material.
 12. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 10, wherein the shelter includes ribs supporting the canopy.
 13. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 12, wherein the ribs are axially expandable to tighten the canopy.
 14. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 13, wherein each rib includes a lock for locking the rib in an expanded configuration.
 15. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 12, wherein the ribs are pivotally expandable to tighten the canopy.
 16. (canceled)
 17. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shelter can be square and expanded to be at least 1.7 meters long×1.7 meters wide.
 18. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the assembled shelter is of sufficient height to accommodate a standing person.
 19. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 1, including framework with lightweight and resilient tubes.
 20. A method for assembling a portable shelter assembly, the method including: erecting a support by hammering a spike into the ground with a hammer pole that slides relative to the spike; supporting an expandable shelter with the support including the hammer pole; anchoring the shelter; and expanding the shelter to shelter a person.
 21. A shelter assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the receptacles rest on the ground to prevent contraction of the expanded shelter. 